First-seeded Iga Swiatek has learned her path to the Doha final as she is aiming to defend her Doha title and lift her first title in 2023. Since Swiatek is the top-seeded player in Doha, she will have a first-round bye. In her opener, Swiatek could face 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins.
In the quarterfinal, Swiatek could potentially meet either Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic or former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka. In the Doha semifinal, we could potentially get a rematch of the 2022 French Open final as Swiatek could very easily meet Cori Gauff.
Should Swiatek reach the Doha final, the Pole could meet a top player such as Caroline Garcia, Jessica Pegula and Maria Sakkari.
How will Swiatek look in Doha?
Swiatek is set to play her first tournament since suffering an Australian Open disappointment.
Following a surprise round-of-16 exit at Melbourne Park, Swiatek hinted she would do an analysis and change certain things. “I felt like I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments, and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard.
So I’m going to try to chill out a little bit more. That’s all,” Swiatek said after her Australian Open exit. At the Australian Open, Swiatek put too much pressure on herself to do well and it didn’t end well for her.
“For sure past two weeks have been pretty hard for me. So I felt today that I don’t have that much to take from myself to fight even more. I felt the pressure, and I felt that I don’t want to lose instead of I want to win.
So that’s a base of what I should focus on in the next couple of weeks,” Swiatek revealed. Last year, Swiatek dropped just one set en route to winning Doha. Also, Doha was the tournament where Swiatek’s magnificent streak started. It remains to be seen if Swiatek can have another strong Doha run.
